The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced last Thursday that 10 members of the Bronx gang “Dub City” were charged for their involvement in organized crime and gang-related violence.
Of the 10 members charged, Bruce Silva, 28, and Shadell McBride, 29, are currently in federal custody on previous federal charges dating back to 2012.
Bruce Melvin, 25, Jordan Bennett, 30, Elijah Pough, 28, Alzubair Saleh, 33, Giovanni Rodriguez, 25, and Emmanuel Perez, 24, were arrested on the morning of April 20. Gabriel Valdez, 25, is in state custody and Justin Ballester, 29, remains at-large.
The charges include racketeering conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy, firearms charges and other crimes.
Prosecutors say that since at least 2019, investigators found that members of Dub City committed financial fraud, sold drugs and routinely used guns. Acts of violence committed by the indicted gang members include shootings against members of rival gangs and against other Dub City gang members, some of which resulted in innocent bystanders being hit. The dates of the shootings that members are being charged for range from Aug. 13, 2019, to June 20, 2022.
The gang currently operates in the Mt. Hope and Morris Heights sections of the Bronx, between 175th Street and Burnside Avenue, according to authorities.
This isn’t the first time that multiple members of Dub City have been caught. Seventeen members of the gang were previously indicted in 2012 for similar charges of conspiracy and gang-related violence, among other things, according to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office. Silva and McBride were also part of that indictment.
More recently, The Daily News reported a shooting in 2017 involving Rodriguez and another Dub City member, Darrell Lawrence, who was 18 years old at the time. While they were targeted victims in the shooting, police said that the incident was connected to tensions between Dub City and a rival gang.
“As alleged, over a span of several years, the members of the Dub City Gang enriched themselves through repeated frauds, poured drugs into the Bronx, carried firearms, and terrorized Bronx neighborhoods by repeatedly shooting at other people,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said regarding the charges.
“Through these charges, we will hold Dub City members responsible for their gun violence and other criminal activity that makes our communities less safe for innocent residents,” he added.
All 10 members could face maximum sentences of life in prison or minimum sentences ranging between five and 35 years in prison.
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